Mine was made in 1981. I have heard some of these rifles we finished rough on the barrel and some smooth. Mine is smooth and very well finished with a good metal to wood fit also. Scope rail is straight also but all of them the scope rails are not the greatest but can be made to work even with the squared off ones that are not dovetailed. Out of the whole gun it seems the scope rails are the worst part of the gun but can be made to work no matter what problems they may have. Since these guns were made with the express rear sights I suppose the scope rail was maybe a secondary concearn? For those who do not know and shoot the open sights the front sight is adjustable for elevation and the rear blades are set for 25,50 and a 100 meters. Since mine was made in 81 kinda shoots the maybe these were made poorly theory for these years. The book I bought by Paul Liska (email addy to find out about getting a copy is romanian69@webtv.net ) says that these guns were made by International Mechanical of Cugar (IMC) or Unified Mechanical of Cugar. (UMC) Cugar Romania. Mine is a IMC maybe that is part of the difference in these rifles two different divisions making them and each having more than one factory. If you own a Romanian 69 this book is nice to have. It is not big only about 25 pages but 22 of them list technical specs, stock,barrel & reciever, Trigger group,sights, bolt teardown and reassembly, a pattern for making a other fireing pin if you need to, All with pictures and easy to under stand print. I forgot what it cost but around 6 bucks comes to mind. Cheap for all the info it contains as it is a good owners type manual since these rifles do not come with one.